Episode 497
“The blood moon has risen.”
Zeke’s attack was a moment too late.
The crimson ring, born from the combined powers of Ramon Jimenez’s Azitahaka and the priest, aligned perfectly with the blood moon.
Wooooong!
The blood moon, caught within the dark crimson ring, began to emit an eerie sound, soon transforming into a swirling vortex.
Rumble!
The vortex expanded, morphing into a massive gate.
Seeing this, Zeke raised his sword once more, aiming at the altar.
But Tantalos, unwilling to let him proceed, blocked Zeke’s path.
“Damn it.”
Outside, Richmond and Bane were engaging Jimenez’s knights alongside shadow spirits to draw attention away.
Zeke’s summoned Black Sword Knights were still on their way, needing more time to arrive.
“I have to stop them, even if I’m alone.”
Taking a deep breath, Zeke retrieved the Green Sword and the Eastern Blade from his inventory.
Wooooong!
The swords vibrated in the air, summoning Arataso and Nebilos.
Tantalos frowned at the sight of the summoned demons.
“Traitors who abandoned their demon pride.”
Rumble!
As an executioner of the Abyss, Tantalos, a proud Tuma demon, valued demon pride above all else. To him, Arataso and Nebilos, who had betrayed the demon realm to side with humans, were enemies to be eradicated.
Nebilos spoke in a strained voice.
“To think I, an inspector of Abaddon, would be called a traitor… Perhaps if we join forces with Tantalos to defeat Zeke Dreiker, we could return to the demon realm.”
Arataso shook his head at Nebilos’s suggestion.
“Do you really think that executioner would listen to us? Besides, if Tantalos loses, we might end up sealed in that sword forever.”
“Ugh.”
Reluctantly, Nebilos gathered his strength.
Rumble!
As Arataso’s aura and Nebilos’s magic clashed with Tantalos’s power, a chaotic storm of energy erupted nearby.
Zeke addressed the two demons.
“Hold him off while I disrupt the ritual!”
With those words, Zeke left Arataso and Nebilos to deal with Tantalos and flew straight toward the altar.
Around Ramon and the priest, who were opening the gate, stood the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and dark sorcerers.
Zeke charged at them from the air, sword drawn.
“Haaaaaah!”
From Zeke’s sword, the Infinite Sword Technique unfolded.
Secret Technique of the Infinite Sword
Second Form
Dragon Slayer
As the secret technique unfolded, the astral sword emanating from Zeke’s blade enveloped the entire area.
Rumble!
Zeke, a Grand Master, wielded a sword that held the power to annihilate the very essence of existence, not just destroy.
The Dragon Slayer cleaved through the red gate in the air without hesitation.
Shhh―
A thin line sliced through the red gate, splitting it like shattered glass.
But then, Ramon snapped his fingers.
Just as the dragon’s breath had failed, the gate, which had been split, restored itself as if time had reversed.
Zeke gritted his teeth.
“Could it be that Ramon also possesses the power of reversal?”
Chronos wielded the power to manipulate time. Zeke, having received that power, could control time, but only under complex conditions.
It was a power distinctly different from ordinary abilities, leading Zeke to believe that only Chronos could wield such a power. Yet, it seemed Ramon had a similar ability.
Calming his racing thoughts, Zeke considered the situation.
“It might not be a time-related power. It could be the power of a malevolent god.”
The higher the celestial rank, the broader the range of powers they possessed. Belial’s power of deception, for instance, could produce a wide array of effects depending on its use.
Zeke suspected Ramon’s power was similar.
“The important thing now is that if he uses his power again, I won’t be able to stop the ritual.”
Zeke decided to take a gamble.
He looked at the black sword, Levatein, in his hand.
“Levatein’s unique power, Chaos…”
The activation effect of Chaos was to nullify the powers of celestials.
While it seemed like a highly useful ability, Zeke had refrained from using it after realizing its major drawback during practice.
When Chaos was activated, its effects also impacted Zeke himself, rendering all his powers and system effects unusable.
Unable to properly counter enemy attacks, Zeke hesitated to activate Chaos.
But with the situation as dire as it was, he had no choice but to take the risk.
Raising Levatein, Zeke summoned the power of chaos.
Rumble!
Levatein, imbued with the power of the sacred spear Longomianth, held the chaotic force capable of killing celestials.
Sensing the ominous energy emanating from Zeke, Ramon shouted to the priest.
“Priest! Open the gate quickly! We don’t know what Zeke Dreiker might do!”
The priest was in the process of connecting the gate to the dimension where Azitahaka was trapped.
Given that the isolated realm existed in a distant layer beyond the abyss, even the priest found it challenging to open the gate.
And then it happened.
Crackle―
Red currents flowed from the gate, and a sinister aura began to seep out.
The connection to Azitahaka, trapped in the isolated realm, had been established.
Oooooooh―
A chilling wail that froze the soul echoed from within the gate.
It was the cry of Azitahaka’s spirit beasts.
With a maniacal grin, Ramon spread his arms toward Azitahaka beyond the gate.
“O malevolent god who claimed the rank of a celestial on your own! End your long exile and descend upon this land today!”
Rumble!
As Ramon’s words ended, something began to emerge from the gate.
Screeeeech―
Azitahaka’s spirit beasts, grotesque in appearance as if their entire bodies had been stitched together, let out horrific screams, clawing to escape the gate.
Crunch!
The spirit beasts pushed against each other, tearing limbs as they emerged from the gate.
The severed limbs of the spirit beasts that fell around the altar and platform twitched, regenerating and restoring to their original forms.
Screeeeech!
The spirit beasts bared their razor-sharp teeth, drooling sticky, acidic saliva.
Their stitched wounds burst open, revealing new mouths within.
Their appearance was so grotesque it was hard to believe they were creatures of the physical realm.
As the spirit beasts poured out of the gate, a moment came.
Crunch!
A massive hand shot out from the gate, grabbing the spirit beasts and squeezing them.
Squelch!
In an instant, the spirit beasts turned into a sticky pool of blood, flowing down the platform.
Ramon immediately recognized the black arm emerging from the gate.
“O malevolent god Azitahaka!”
The arm withdrew, and then a pair of red eyes appeared within the gate.
The ominous eyes of the malevolent god seemed to scan the realm beyond.
Then the eyes retreated, and two hands emerged, tearing at the small gate opening.
Crack―
The stabilized energy of the gate became unstable, causing a backlash of causality to erupt in all directions.
For Azitahaka, an entity beyond measure, to descend into the physical realm, it was crucial to deceive the eyes of karma.
If the backlash of causality couldn’t be contained, karma would not allow it and would close the gate.
The priest chanted incantations, using the power of the bloodstone to stabilize the backlash of causality.
Crack―
As Azitahaka tore at the gate with its hands, a dreadful sound echoed everywhere.
The gate had widened considerably, and now Azitahaka’s main body was attempting to push its head through.
Crackle!
As Azitahaka’s main body tried to enter the physical realm directly, the backlash of causality intensified.
The priest had thought the bloodstone would suffice, but realized it was a grave mistake.
“If the time of the blood moon ends, the laws of karma will normalize, and the backlash will be severe.”
Somehow, Azitahaka had to be summoned to the ground while the blood moon was still in the sky.
As the priest calculated and exerted his power, Azitahaka’s head was halfway through the dimensional rift.
Screeeeech!
The malevolent god opened its mouth wide, letting out a terrifying scream.
The scream alone was enough to cause those with insufficient aura or magic to bleed from their ears and collapse dead.
And then it happened.
Sssssss―
Suddenly, everything began to turn ashen gray.
Ramon and the priest, who were maintaining the gate, were startled by the sudden change in the landscape’s color.
Small whirlwinds formed in the gray-tinted area.
“What is this!”
The unique power of Levatein, Chaos, unleashed by Zeke, was gradually consuming the domain.
Within the realm of Chaos, no celestial could wield their powers.
Ramon felt the power of Azitahaka, which had been sustaining the gate, begin to dissipate.
“Priest! Hurry!”
The priest raised his hand high.
In that instant, the dark energy that had been seeping from Abel’s heart erupted violently.
Abel, who had been lying still, convulsed as black energy spewed from his eyes, nose, and mouth in thick clouds.
“Aaaaargh!”
Using Abel as a conduit, the power of Solomon that resided within him resonated.
The gate widened further.
Kaaaaa—
Before anyone realized it, Azitahaka had begun to push its head and one arm through, attempting to force its way in.
But then, it happened.
Crash!
Azitahaka’s body, as if placed on a guillotine, was abruptly severed, falling from the air to the ground.
The gate snapped shut, slicing off the parts of Azitahaka that had emerged into the physical realm.
Rumble—
Ramon, his face drained of color, looked up.
Chaos swirled around him, a vortex of disorder.
He realized he could no longer feel the power he had received from Azitahaka.
‘How could Zeke Draker possess such power?’
He had heard from the priest that Zeke wielded both the power of dragons and immortality.
But he never imagined Zeke could erase even the power of the constellations.
The severed arm and half of Azitahaka’s head lay grotesquely on the platform below.
As Ramon stared blankly at the scene, Zeke, wrapped in a gray vortex, slowly approached.
Zeke’s eyes were not the golden dragon’s gaze but the very essence of swirling chaos.
Ramon shouted at Zeke.
“Zeke Draker! How dare you!”
He had waited and prepared for decades.
He believed that with Azitahaka’s power, he could bring everything to its knees.
Just as that glory was within reach, Zeke Draker had ruined it all.
Zeke was using all his strength to maintain the chaotic aura of Levatein.
Even a moment’s lapse in concentration could pull his body and mind into the vortex of chaos, so he couldn’t afford to let his guard down.
‘If I release the chaos aura now, Azitahaka’s summoning will resume.’
Zeke steadied his breathing, striving to maintain the chaotic aura.
Then he addressed Ramon and the priest.
“Ramon Siemens, Harvey West. Your plans have all failed. Surrender and stop this futile resistance.”
Ramon gritted his teeth and shouted back.
“I’d rather die than ever do that!”
Whoosh!
A sword of fire materialized in Ramon’s hand.
The Siemens family had been known for crafting and wielding the most powerful magical artifacts during the era of the Seven Kingdoms.
That legacy had been passed down through the generations.
Even without Azitahaka’s power, Ramon was a formidable opponent.
He swung the magical sword at Zeke.
Boom!
Dozens of fiery arrows shot from the sword, hurtling toward Zeke.
Whoosh!
Zeke swung Levatein, and the storm of chaos enveloped the fiery arrows, erasing them completely.
Ramon’s face twisted in frustration.
Chaos was a greater force of destruction and annihilation.
Since it could erase even the power of the constellations, it was only natural it could nullify magic.
But the chaotic aura had its drawbacks, even with its absolute power.
It required immense mental strength to maintain.
Without his passive skills of indomitable will and infinite stamina, Zeke wouldn’t have been able to sustain the chaotic aura.
As Zeke prepared to take another step forward, the priest, who had been watching silently, spoke to him.
[You never cease to amaze me, Zeke Draker.]
“Stop being amazed and just die already, you wraith of the abyss.”
The priest shook his head at Zeke’s words.
[That won’t happen.]
In an instant, the priest pulled out a hidden bloodstone and tossed it into the air.
Whoooom!
The bloodstone glowed brightly before exploding, sending shockwaves in all directions.